Online Charter Schools Could Get Windfall. Public School Districts Vow To Fight Back. Among the largest school districts in the state, Epic One-On-One is an innovative institution designed to empower families by using online technology so students can learn at home. By one classic definition, it's homeschooling that the state pays for. If a current lawsuit goes their way, Epic and other 'brick & mortar' charter schools could get equal footing with the public school districts who claim rights to the local property tax base. OklahomaWatch files this article about the progress of a state court lawsuit for reforms in local school funding and the advancement of parental choice. In the article, Jennifer Palmer states;
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I grew up in an economic wasteland. No, not the Soviet Union. LOL. But Central Massachusetts in the 1980s. As a teenager, the only work options I had were McDonalds for $3.15 an hour or a paper route for even less that. There were simply no opportunities to hustle for a buck. You couldn't even mow lawns because no one had the money to pay kids, never mind landscapers.
Moving to Philadelphia for college (UPenn) in 1992 was an eye-opening experience for me. Suddenly I had job opportunities galore at north of $5 per hour and even higher! Though more importantly, I met some truly amazing kids who were light-years ahead of me. While I had spent my entire youth on school, sports, and television (all dead ends!).... Some of these kids, arrived at college with side businesses of their own already. I was shocked to meet 18 year-old classmates who read the Wall Street Journal. Others were trading stocks. There was even one kid I met who launched a massive textbook business right on campus - competing directly with the University Bookstore. Read Daniel's full report at Homeschooling Dad. Under Gary Stanislawski's Senate Bill 244, virtual students who don’t log on to their program at least once a day for five days during a seven-day week would be marked absent. The schools would be required to submit to the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board a report when a student accumulates 10 absences. Oklahoma Watch wrote an extensive report of the bill and interviewed Stanislawski. But some glaring questions go unanswered.
This bill harkens back to the days when former Sen. Jim Wilson (a Tahlequah Democrat), would threaten to put homeschool kids in jail if they are seen unattended at the park on days when public schools decide that it's a school day. The families who conduct school days in June & July would not get to apply those days in place of days in November or February. Families who take spring break during a different week of March, would also be truants. I guess Stanislawski's bill serves to prove that Epic One On One will not be allowed to work like a homeschool. Recently, Stanislawski pushed legislation which made the Oklahoma Legislature and their Board of Virtual Schools the sponsor of Epic as a charter school, rather than a local school district. So the responsibility for policy now rests squarely upon Senate Education Chairman Stanislawski and other legislative leaders. Many homeschool leaders warned Oklahoma families not to view a state-run curriculum as a traditional homeschool process. They are now saying; "We told you so." I disagreed with them 6 years ago, but bills like SB244 now prove I was wrong to dismiss the warning. I don't believe Sen. Stanislawski is being deliberately harmful to the more than 40,000 home-educated students and their parents. I just think this former Jenks school board member has a mindset which doesn't comprehend the homeschoolers' needs for flexibility in format. How about waiting until we see a widespread failure of home educating, before we declare an emergency, as Stanislawski has declared. I urge the legislature to stop this effort to restrict the families who educate their children at home. This bill could result in many home educating parents going to criminal court and facing some very adversarial district attorneys' charges. |
Sooner Politics
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